Statistics indicate that the Texas Rangers are hitting and pitching well despite injuries. What is wrong?
The offense appears to be alright based on the total counting figures, but various droughts cast doubt on that. The bullpen is slightly better in some areas than others, but it is still prone to meltdowns, as was the case in Globe Life Field’s 7-0 defeat to the Cleveland Guardians on Monday.
What about the rotation? Every injury that comes and every worry that Texas’ internal depth is insufficient to manage the quantity of preexisting medical concerns and those that have increased throughout the first three months of the season seem to somehow make it better.
It’s a little confusing. So was the series opener on Monday.
Starting pitcher Michael Lorenzen of the Rangers faced the Guardians and pitched seven shutout, one-hit innings. Before Cleveland’s leadoff batter Tyler Freeman poked a single between Josh Smith and Corey Seager on the left side of the infield, he dispersed four walks and held a no-hit bid into the sixth inning. He extended Texas’ starting pitchers’ remarkable run of success and increasingly cemented the need for his signing on the final day of spring training.
He exerted every effort. But the Rangers’ bullpen tried to replicate the relief corps from the previous season, while the team’s offense tried to mimic Cleveland’s.
Tanner Bibee, the starter for the Guardians, shut out the Rangers in the third and third innings before Nathaniel Lowe singled in the fourth. When Travis Jankowski singled and advanced to second on a botched pickoff attempt in the fifth, they advanced a runner into scoring position for the first time. In the sixth, Josh Smith grounded out on a middle-middle splitter that was full-count, and Adolis García struck out chasing on three pitches after Leody Taveras (single), Seager (walk), and Lowe (walk) loaded the bases with one out.
García, who was the team’s cleanup hitter and April’s club player of the month, struck out three times on Monday. As of May 21, with only three strikeouts and only three walks, he is hitting 153 (8 for 52). Smith, who may have garnered the second-most votes for April’s player of the month after hitting fifth on Monday, is 1 for his last 14 and has hit.200 in May.
It’s not limited to them. The Rangers’ collective performance this past weekend in Denver’s hitter-friendly Coors Field, where they only managed six runs and lost to the Colorado Rockies in last place, is proof of the opposite. Illnesses haven’t been helpful. Josh Jung is out due to a fractured wrist.
According to Baseball Reference, despite only playing in four games this season, Jung still has a greater WAR than all but three position players on Texas’ roster. A damaged hamstring has put Wyatt Langford on the disabled list, while Evan Carter, another rookie, is out with a strained back.
Bochy remarked, “We’re just not consistent with the batting order right now. We’re just in one of those deals there.” “[We’re] having trouble bringing guys in and onto base.” That will not work in a situation where winning a baseball game is likely to be difficult with one or two runs allowed.
Bochy is not one to brood over injuries, and given how successfully his rotation has worked on its own, he may have data to back up his theory.
With a league-best 68 and 2/3 innings worked in May, Texas’ starters had the third-lowest ERA in the American League going into Monday’s play. That figure dropped to 2.73 ERA in 75 and 2/3 innings thanks to Lorenzen’s start. This month, the Rangers have received ten starts of five innings or more and two or fewer, but they have dropped six of those contests.
“I believe this group has a good deal of experience,” Lorenzen remarked. “Even the guys on the IL have a good deal of experience.” I believe the wealth of expertise that [general manager Chris Young] has brought in is what’s important. The squad and the rotation have benefited greatly, in my opinion, simply from the experience.
A starting rotation with veterans like Tyler Mahle, Dane Dunning, Blake Bradford, Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, and Nathan Eovaldi should be able to produce results similar to those Texas’ rotation is currently producing. It appears less plausible for one who is missing all six of them and has switched to spot starters three times in the previous six days.